Hormone Therapy in Menopause Not Tied to Increased Mortality

Last Updated: September 12, 2017.
Menopausal hormone therapy is not tied to any increase in long-term all-cause or cause-specific mortality, according to a study published in the Sept. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Findings based on long-term follow up of both all-cause, cause-specific deaths

TUESDAY, Sept. 12, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Menopausal hormone therapy is not tied to any increase in long-term all-cause or cause-specific mortality, according to a study published in the Sept. 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., Dr.P.H., from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues evaluated total and cause-specific cumulative mortality, including during the intervention and extended postintervention follow-up, for participants (aged 50 to 79 years) of the two Women's Health Initiative hormone therapy trials (between 1993 and 1998 with follow up through Dec. 31, 2014).

The researchers found that during the 18-year follow-up, there were 7,489 deaths (1,088 deaths during the intervention phase and 6,401 deaths during postintervention follow-up). All-cause mortality was 27.1 percent in the hormone therapy group versus 27.6 percent in the placebo group (hazard ratio [HR], 0.99; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.94 to 1.03) in the overall pooled cohort. For the conjugated equine estrogens (CEE) plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), the HR was 1.02 (95 percent CI, 0.96 to 1.08), and 0.94 (95 percent CI, 0.88 to 1.01) for CEE alone. When comparing younger women (aged 50 to 59 years) to older women (aged 70 to 79 years) in the pooled cohort, the ratio of nominal HRs for all-cause mortality was 0.61 (95 percent CI, 0.43 to 0.87) during the intervention phase and 0.87 (95 percent CI, 0.76 to 1.00) during follow-up.

"Among postmenopausal women, hormone therapy with CEE plus MPA for a median of 5.6 years or with CEE alone for a median of 7.2 years was not associated with risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, or cancer mortality during a cumulative follow-up of 18 years," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.